REVIEW: Four Letter Word (Dirty Deeds #1)

Four Letter Word (Dirty Deeds #1), by J. Daniels
Publish Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Forever
Format: ARC, provided by the publisher via Netgalley
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4 STARS

(Synopsis) Fate. Hate. Love. Lies.

Which four letter word will change their lives forever?

Sydney Paige was never so mortified to hear the words "wrong number" in her life. She meant to tell off the guy who broke her best friend's heart but unleashed her anger on a perfect stranger instead. And now her world is turned upside down by the captivating man who wants to keep her on the line.

Brian Savage is living a life he's quickly come to hate-until Sydney's wild rant has him hooked and hungry for more. Soon the sexy woman on the phone becomes the lover in his bed. But Brian has secrets, and the closer he lets Syd get, the harder it is to shield her from the devastating mistakes of his past . . .

Four Letter Word was fun book. Don't get me wrong - it deals with some heavy emotional stuff at varying points during the story. But, what better way to meet your soul mate than through a wrong number phone call? It's like a scene from a movie. I can see it all play out in my head. Girl calls BFF's lying, cheating boyfriend and delivers some truly stellar insults (really - they were fantastic), only to discover that she did all that to a total stranger. 

Sydney is dealing with her own relationship meltdown when she incorrectly dials up Brian and rips him a new one. The next day, she's surprised when he sends her a text. And for the next few weeks, they talk and text for hours, becoming each other's lifeboat in the storms that are their lives right now. Brian is dealing with his own personal issues, and trust me when I say that the way he's currently handling them is not healthy. Like, AT ALL. But, his conversations with Sydney are the one thing he has to look forward to - the only time he smiles. 

My world was one miserable mistake-shaping second after another, except for the breaks in my misery that belonged to her.

The in-person near misses between them had me smiling. And then their first real in-person meet was seriously so perfect. J. Daniels couldn't have done it better. I really loved Brian. He's raw and edgy and blunt. But with Sydney, he's incredibly sweet and romantic and heart-stoppingly sexy. He also insists on continuing to keep his secrets, so you just KNOW that decision is going to come back to bite him at the worst possible time. 

The premise of the book is what encouraged me to read it - the whole wrong number thing was brilliant, I thought. This is my first J. Daniels book, so I have no prior experience with this author on which to draw from. But, upon finishing Four Letter Word, I went and added a few more J. Daniels books to my TBR. I really liked her writing style - it, at times, reminded me a bit of Kristen Ashley and her Chaos series. The clipped dialog and no-nonsense characters were very reminiscent of Ashley's series, but Daniels definitely had her own style that shined through.

Four Letter Word is written in dual POV, which was great since the two main characters don't even meet each other in person until nearly 50% through the book. So, at least we had that connection to both of them to keep the story moving well. Another positive? J. Daniels writes some super hot dialog. Syd and Brian had great chemistry when they were only talking on the phone, but when they finally get together - off the hotness scale. 

The side characters were developed really well, too, and I'm looking forward already to a story between Tori and Jamie, Shay and Stitch and Jenna and Cole. Now that J. Daniels is on my radar, I'm not planning on missing any of these stories.